The stanzas of words have survived the half-century since Louie Marino penned them by remaining safely stored, but not forgotten, in his Perry Township home. Fifty years later, they capture the essence of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

The stanzas of words have survived the half-century since Louie Marino penned them by remaining safely stored, but not forgotten, in his Perry Township home.

Fifty years later, they capture the essence of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

"I was about 29 when Kennedy was assassinated, and I was working at a brickyard," he recalled. "I came home that day, and my wife was sitting there watching television and I could tell she had been crying."

In the days that followed, Marino watched the events surrounding the funeral and burial of President Kennedy unfold on TV.

"When it was all over, I thought, well, maybe I could sum it up," he remembered. "So, I wrote something. I wouldn't say it's a poem, because I don't consider myself a poet. It's called 'A Torch is Passed.'"

Marino began to recite his words — words that have remained in a drawer for 50 years, remembered at each anniversary of the Kennedy killing.

"And," he notes, pointing at his head, "they're up here."

A Torch is Passed

Across this great land of ours the death bell sadly cried.

Deep down inside each and every one of us a little bit has died.

A flag-covered coffin moves slowly out of sight.

A caisson drawn by six white horses echoes through the night.

Across the lawns and through the woods comes the cannon sound.

Fifty times for fifty states, it shakes the hallowed ground.

Arlington National Cemetery now claims a new and famous resident.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, America's thirty-fifth president.

His eternal flame shall flicker like a candle in the night.

This nation will long remember that he stood for human rights.

So, rest now champion of human rights, may God grant you peace at last.